Samantha Ashenden
Biographic Data
| ID | 257326 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Samantha Ashenden |
| GIVEN NAMES | Samantha |
| FAMILY NAME | Ashenden |
| SIGNATURE | ASHENDEN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Birkbeck, University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3744-9904 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The state of the state
Recent economic, democratic and geopolitical events have raised the question of ‘the state' anew, as problems of territory, sovereignty, protectionism, borders, authoritarianism and surveillance have acquired fresh salience amongst both scholars and wider publics. Members of the Economy & Society Editorial Board convened a seminar at University College London in February 2025 to address these questions and problems, on the guiding assumption that…
Nigel Dodd: An appreciation
Professor Nigel Dodd was a long-standing and much-loved member of the Editorial Board of Economy and Society. He sadly passed away in August 2022. In this short piece, we express our heartfelt gratitude for Nigel’s contributions to the journal and briefly introduce a virtual collection of 4 papers assembled to register our appreciation. The papers are free to access from the Collections section of our website throughout 2023, and include Nigel’s …
Republican Elements in the Liberalism of Fear
Judith Shklar’s liberalism of fear is distinct from other liberalisms; it gains its unique imprint and quality through a long and consistent engagement with, and critical discussion of, republicanism. Her account of the contemporary relevance of notions of virtues and vices, justice and injustice, the questions of rights, representation, citizenship and democracy all point to older republican influences. However, Shklar also knew that unreconstru…
Thick and Thin – or Political? Avishai Margalit and Judith N. Shklar on Betrayal
Judith Shklar and Avishai Margalit both pay significant attention to the notion of betrayal; in doing so they pinpoint some of the most intractable problems of belonging, and in particular of political belonging, faced by human beings. Each examines the idea across multiple contexts, and is sensitive to the ambiguities of betrayal. Yet despite some profound similarities of approach, we argue that Shklar delivers a cleaner, more political and yet …
On Political Obligation
Friendship
In this chapter Shklar continues to discuss loyalty conflicts in classical times. She uses the case of the Roman general Coriolanus and a number of classical and modern commentaries on him in order to illustrate further complications arising from different positions taken inconflicts of loyalty.
Antigone
In this chapter Shklar discusses the moral dilemmas and conflicts in terms of loyalty and disobedience in one of the best known classic Greek dramas—Sophocles’ Antigone . She guides the reader through various interpretations of the play, and argues that its ongoing relevance is a result of its moral complexity.
Between Utopia and Realism: The Political Thought of Judith N. Shklar
On Political Obligation
This stimulating collection of lectures by the late Judith Shklar on political obligation is paired with a scholarly introduction that offers an overview of her life, illuminates the connections among her teaching, research, and publications, and explains why her lectures still resonate with us and contribute to current debates in political theory and intellectual history
Totalitarianism and justice: Hannah Arendt's and Judith N. Shklar's political reflections in historical and theoretical perspective
We locate Arendt’s and Shklar’s writings within what Katznelson has identified as an attempt to create a new language for politics after the cataclysm of the twentieth century, and Greif has called the new ‘maieutic’ discourse of ‘re-enlightenment’ in the ‘age of the crisis of man’. More specifically, we compare and contrast two related, but in many ways also differing, ways of thinking about totalitarianism and its legal repercussions. To this e…
Foucault, Ferguson, and civil society
In contrast to those who trace civil society to "community" per se, Foucault is keen to locate this concept as it emerges at a particular moment in respect of specific exigencies of government. He suggests that civil society is a novel way of thinking about a problem, a particular problematization of government that emerges in the eighteenth century and which combines incommensurable conceptions of the subject as simultaneously a subject of right…
On violence in Habermas’s philosophy of language
Habermas does not rule out the possibility of violence in language. In fact his account explicitly licenses a broad conception of violence as ‘systematically distorted communication’. Yet he does rule out the possibility that language simultaneously imposes as it discloses. That is, his argument precludes the possibility of recognizing that there is an antinomy at the heart of language and philosophical reason. This occlusion of the simultaneousl…
Guilt: Introduction
Romantic guilt and identity
There is a kind of guilt that looks archaic, but which arises at the moment of Romanticism. One way of understanding it is as a response to a plight bequeathed by Kant. Kant's account of the subject secures the subject as such, but not the particular individual. The particular individual for Kant presents a risk, the risk of turning away from the good will defined by the categorical imperative to embrace one's own, particular good. Ultimately for…
The persistence of collective guilt
This paper asks why, despite the obvious difficulties entailed, the notion of 'collective guilt' continues to feature in discussions of the responsibilities of one group towards another. The aim is to clarify how it is that the partial success of repeated attempts to distinguish individual from collective guilt and to confine the latter to a pre-modern moment reveals something of our present. The key contributions to this discussion made by Hanna…
Governing Child Sexual Abuse: Negotiating the Boundaries of Public and Private, Law and Science
Book synopsis: The turn of the 1990s saw a number of high profile public inquiries into the handling of child sexual abuse cases in Great Britain. In examines the implications of these inquiries on the regulation of relationships between families and the state, author Samantha Ashenden brings a number of contemporary debates in social and political theory to bear upon the governance of child sexual abuse. \n \nIn particular, drawing on the work o…
Obituary: Professor Paul Hirst 1946 – 2003
fo llo wing a brain haemorrhage.He was fi fty-seven. Paul was one of the most impor ta nt social and political thinkers of his generation.But more than this, he was an energetic campaigner fo r practical reform
Introduction: Foucault, Habermas and the Politics of Critique
Foucault Contra Habermas: Recasting the Dialogue between Genealogy and Critical Theory
Foucault contra Habermas is an incisive examination of, and a comprehensive introduction to, the debate between Foucault and Habermas over the meaning of enlightenment and modernity. It reprises the key issues in the argument between critical theory and genealogy and is organised around three complementary themes: defining the context of the debate; examining the theoretical and conceptual tools used; and discussing the implications for politics …
Pluralism within the limits of reason alone? Habermas and the discursive negotiation of consensus
Reflexive governance and child sexual abouse: Liberal welfare rationality and the Cleveland Inquirty
The purpose of this paper is to explore child sexual abuse as a site of contemporary government, exemplifying producivity of the approach to the study of political rationality suggested by Michel Foucault. It gues, firstly, that the government of chil sexual abuse is achieved through a complex of discourwses and practices which are a form of government we can chracterize as liberal welfare rationality, secondly, that the dicourses surrounding and…
Reflexive governance and child sexual abouse: Liberal welfare rationality and the Cleveland Inquirty
The purpose of this paper is to explore child sexual abuse as a site of contemporary government, exemplifying producivity of the approach to the study of political rationality suggested by Michel Foucault. It gues, firstly, that the government of chil sexual abuse is achieved through a complex of discourwses and practices which are a form of government we can chracterize as liberal welfare rationality, secondly, that the dicourses surrounding and…
Totalitarianism and justice: Hannah Arendt's and Judith N. Shklar's political reflections in historical and theoretical perspective
We locate Arendt’s and Shklar’s writings within what Katznelson has identified as an attempt to create a new language for politics after the cataclysm of the twentieth century, and Greif has called the new ‘maieutic’ discourse of ‘re-enlightenment’ in the ‘age of the crisis of man’. More specifically, we compare and contrast two related, but in many ways also differing, ways of thinking about totalitarianism and its legal repercussions. To this e…
On violence in Habermas’s philosophy of language
Habermas does not rule out the possibility of violence in language. In fact his account explicitly licenses a broad conception of violence as ‘systematically distorted communication’. Yet he does rule out the possibility that language simultaneously imposes as it discloses. That is, his argument precludes the possibility of recognizing that there is an antinomy at the heart of language and philosophical reason. This occlusion of the simultaneousl…
Pluralism within the limits of reason alone? Habermas and the discursive negotiation of consensus
Foucault, Ferguson, and civil society
In contrast to those who trace civil society to "community" per se, Foucault is keen to locate this concept as it emerges at a particular moment in respect of specific exigencies of government. He suggests that civil society is a novel way of thinking about a problem, a particular problematization of government that emerges in the eighteenth century and which combines incommensurable conceptions of the subject as simultaneously a subject of right…
Thick and Thin – or Political? Avishai Margalit and Judith N. Shklar on Betrayal
Judith Shklar and Avishai Margalit both pay significant attention to the notion of betrayal; in doing so they pinpoint some of the most intractable problems of belonging, and in particular of political belonging, faced by human beings. Each examines the idea across multiple contexts, and is sensitive to the ambiguities of betrayal. Yet despite some profound similarities of approach, we argue that Shklar delivers a cleaner, more political and yet …
Romantic guilt and identity
There is a kind of guilt that looks archaic, but which arises at the moment of Romanticism. One way of understanding it is as a response to a plight bequeathed by Kant. Kant's account of the subject secures the subject as such, but not the particular individual. The particular individual for Kant presents a risk, the risk of turning away from the good will defined by the categorical imperative to embrace one's own, particular good. Ultimately for…
The persistence of collective guilt
This paper asks why, despite the obvious difficulties entailed, the notion of 'collective guilt' continues to feature in discussions of the responsibilities of one group towards another. The aim is to clarify how it is that the partial success of repeated attempts to distinguish individual from collective guilt and to confine the latter to a pre-modern moment reveals something of our present. The key contributions to this discussion made by Hanna…
Reflexive governance and child sexual abouse: Liberal welfare rationality and the Cleveland Inquirty
The purpose of this paper is to explore child sexual abuse as a site of contemporary government, exemplifying producivity of the approach to the study of political rationality suggested by Michel Foucault. It gues, firstly, that the government of chil sexual abuse is achieved through a complex of discourwses and practices which are a form of government we can chracterize as liberal welfare rationality, secondly, that the dicourses surrounding and…
Pluralism within the limits of reason alone? Habermas and the discursive negotiation of consensus
Introduction: Foucault, Habermas and the Politics of Critique
Foucault Contra Habermas: Recasting the Dialogue between Genealogy and Critical Theory
Foucault contra Habermas is an incisive examination of, and a comprehensive introduction to, the debate between Foucault and Habermas over the meaning of enlightenment and modernity. It reprises the key issues in the argument between critical theory and genealogy and is organised around three complementary themes: defining the context of the debate; examining the theoretical and conceptual tools used; and discussing the implications for politics …
Governing Child Sexual Abuse: Negotiating the Boundaries of Public and Private, Law and Science
Book synopsis: The turn of the 1990s saw a number of high profile public inquiries into the handling of child sexual abuse cases in Great Britain. In examines the implications of these inquiries on the regulation of relationships between families and the state, author Samantha Ashenden brings a number of contemporary debates in social and political theory to bear upon the governance of child sexual abuse. \n \nIn particular, drawing on the work o…
Obituary: Professor Paul Hirst 1946 – 2003
fo llo wing a brain haemorrhage.He was fi fty-seven. Paul was one of the most impor ta nt social and political thinkers of his generation.But more than this, he was an energetic campaigner fo r practical reform
On violence in Habermas’s philosophy of language
Habermas does not rule out the possibility of violence in language. In fact his account explicitly licenses a broad conception of violence as ‘systematically distorted communication’. Yet he does rule out the possibility that language simultaneously imposes as it discloses. That is, his argument precludes the possibility of recognizing that there is an antinomy at the heart of language and philosophical reason. This occlusion of the simultaneousl…
Guilt: Introduction
Romantic guilt and identity
There is a kind of guilt that looks archaic, but which arises at the moment of Romanticism. One way of understanding it is as a response to a plight bequeathed by Kant. Kant's account of the subject secures the subject as such, but not the particular individual. The particular individual for Kant presents a risk, the risk of turning away from the good will defined by the categorical imperative to embrace one's own, particular good. Ultimately for…
The persistence of collective guilt
This paper asks why, despite the obvious difficulties entailed, the notion of 'collective guilt' continues to feature in discussions of the responsibilities of one group towards another. The aim is to clarify how it is that the partial success of repeated attempts to distinguish individual from collective guilt and to confine the latter to a pre-modern moment reveals something of our present. The key contributions to this discussion made by Hanna…
Foucault, Ferguson, and civil society
In contrast to those who trace civil society to "community" per se, Foucault is keen to locate this concept as it emerges at a particular moment in respect of specific exigencies of government. He suggests that civil society is a novel way of thinking about a problem, a particular problematization of government that emerges in the eighteenth century and which combines incommensurable conceptions of the subject as simultaneously a subject of right…
Totalitarianism and justice: Hannah Arendt's and Judith N. Shklar's political reflections in historical and theoretical perspective
We locate Arendt’s and Shklar’s writings within what Katznelson has identified as an attempt to create a new language for politics after the cataclysm of the twentieth century, and Greif has called the new ‘maieutic’ discourse of ‘re-enlightenment’ in the ‘age of the crisis of man’. More specifically, we compare and contrast two related, but in many ways also differing, ways of thinking about totalitarianism and its legal repercussions. To this e…
On Political Obligation
Friendship
In this chapter Shklar continues to discuss loyalty conflicts in classical times. She uses the case of the Roman general Coriolanus and a number of classical and modern commentaries on him in order to illustrate further complications arising from different positions taken inconflicts of loyalty.
Antigone
In this chapter Shklar discusses the moral dilemmas and conflicts in terms of loyalty and disobedience in one of the best known classic Greek dramas—Sophocles’ Antigone . She guides the reader through various interpretations of the play, and argues that its ongoing relevance is a result of its moral complexity.
Between Utopia and Realism: The Political Thought of Judith N. Shklar
On Political Obligation
This stimulating collection of lectures by the late Judith Shklar on political obligation is paired with a scholarly introduction that offers an overview of her life, illuminates the connections among her teaching, research, and publications, and explains why her lectures still resonate with us and contribute to current debates in political theory and intellectual history
Republican Elements in the Liberalism of Fear
Judith Shklar’s liberalism of fear is distinct from other liberalisms; it gains its unique imprint and quality through a long and consistent engagement with, and critical discussion of, republicanism. Her account of the contemporary relevance of notions of virtues and vices, justice and injustice, the questions of rights, representation, citizenship and democracy all point to older republican influences. However, Shklar also knew that unreconstru…
Thick and Thin – or Political? Avishai Margalit and Judith N. Shklar on Betrayal
Judith Shklar and Avishai Margalit both pay significant attention to the notion of betrayal; in doing so they pinpoint some of the most intractable problems of belonging, and in particular of political belonging, faced by human beings. Each examines the idea across multiple contexts, and is sensitive to the ambiguities of betrayal. Yet despite some profound similarities of approach, we argue that Shklar delivers a cleaner, more political and yet …
Nigel Dodd: An appreciation
Professor Nigel Dodd was a long-standing and much-loved member of the Editorial Board of Economy and Society. He sadly passed away in August 2022. In this short piece, we express our heartfelt gratitude for Nigel’s contributions to the journal and briefly introduce a virtual collection of 4 papers assembled to register our appreciation. The papers are free to access from the Collections section of our website throughout 2023, and include Nigel’s …
The state of the state
Recent economic, democratic and geopolitical events have raised the question of ‘the state' anew, as problems of territory, sovereignty, protectionism, borders, authoritarianism and surveillance have acquired fresh salience amongst both scholars and wider publics. Members of the Economy & Society Editorial Board convened a seminar at University College London in February 2025 to address these questions and problems, on the guiding assumption that…
Political science (16 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Politics (12 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Foucault, Power, and Ethics (5 works)